Charles Vance Millar

Charles Vance Millar (1853 - October 31, 1926) was a Canadian lawyer and financier most famous for his unusual will.

That will contained a variety of humourously unusual bequests that were intended to show that everyone, especially self important moralists, had their price.

The bequests included:

• Racetrack stocks for anti gambling ministers
• Brewery shares to temperance advocates
• Equal ownership of an expensive house in Jamaica to three men who loathed each other

However, the final clause was the most famous. It promised a cash prize for the woman bearing the greatest number of children in Toronto in a set time period starting at the time of his death. This lead to an unusual contest between competing women which was called the Great Stork Derby.

Although the Government of Ontario tried to invalidate the will as against public policy, Millar had prepared it too carefully and it survived ten years of litigation and the Derby continued uninterrupted.

It was speculated that Millar prepared this clause in his will as a means to discredit indiscriminate birthings and prohibitions against birth control.